Vermont Business Magazine Often touted as the single-most important day in a medical student’s medical school career, Match Day is the day when graduating medical students learn where they’ll spend the next three to seven years for specialty training. On Friday, March 15, 2019 beginning at noon EDT, fourth-year students at the University of Vermont’s (UVM) Larner College of Medicine and soon-to-be-doctors across the U.S. and world will learn the location of their U.S. residency program.

At UVM, Match Day is a celebration marked by bagpipes, crowded hallways and galleries, “Dr. Moo,” a skit and high emotions. The event will begin at 11:40 a.m.(Check out last year’s Match Day video.)

Learn more about some of the UVM medical students who will learn their Match results March 15:

· For 10 years prior to medical school, Brooklyn born-and-raised Class of 2019 President Hyunsoo No was a medical dosimetrist in radiation oncology, working at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and then the NYU Clinical Cancer Center in New York City (NYC). Over the past four years, his wife and two children have stayed in NYC while he has traveled back and forth from UVM. He’s grateful for their support and that of the UVM radiation oncology faculty, with whom he’s collaborated on research grants, presented research at national conferences, published articles, and launched a clinical trial on inoperable early stage lung cancer. And thanks to critical scholarship support from medical alumnus Arnold Goran, M.D.’58, and his wife, Mariel, he’s now awaiting news of a match in radiation oncology.

· Desiree DiBella ’19 moved to Tennessee from San Diego, Calif. at age four. With two parents in the Navy, she was exposed to both medicine – through her father’s work as a corps man and naval hospital radiology technician – as well as many people from a wide range of backgrounds. As a second-year med student, DiBella led a College event aligned with the national #WhiteCoatsforBlackLives movement, which addressed institutionalized violence as a public health issue. She sees a need to focus on the health disparities people of color experience and has a special interest in working with patients of color and kids with chronic illness. She’s applied to matches in two categories – pediatrics and a “Triple Board” combined program in pediatrics, child psychiatry, and adult psychiatry.

· Mammoth Lakes, Calif. native Geordie Lonza ’19 credits her love of science and stories from her late father’s time as a firefighter for Orange County as her biggest inspirations for pursuing medicine. A competitive alpine skier who raced NCAA Division I for Williams College, her longtime interest in orthopedic surgery led to research projects early in medical school and a final decision to pursue the specialty after completing her clinical rotations. Though she lost her dad to cancer in 2013, she’s committed to channeling his warmth, kindness, and affability into her interactions with patients and colleagues and also to serving as a mentor and role model for other women interested in orthopedics.

· Born in Entebbe, Uganda, John Paul Nsubuga ’19 began his medical journey at age 9, when he witnessed how physicians could display clinical knowledge, empathy and kindness towards his family in conjunction with the death of his sister, and became passionate about becoming a doctor. After moving to the U.S. at age 11, he lived in Malden, Mass. where he overcame many challenges, including the language barrier, ever maintaining his conviction to be a physician. An endoscopy clinic volunteer while a psychology major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he graduated summa cum laude and enrolled in medical school. Nsubuga will be matching in internal medicine and later, plans to subspecialize in gastroenterology.

· Gregory Whitcher ’19 is looking forward to news of his match to an emergency medicine residency, a specialty interest sparked by a pre-med school experience he had in Osaka, Japan, when he was called upon to stop a suicidal woman from jumping off a bridge. His background in “DIY” repairs also drew him to this field, where improvisation is a valuable skill. UVM faculty mentors Daniel Barkhuff, M.D., and alumnus Nicholas Aunchman, M.D.’11 reinforced his choice by example. The San Luis Obispo, Calif., native worked as a high school math and science teacher before medical school and relied on those skills to tutor other med students preparing for board exams. Whitcher says his clinical experiences in Vermont inspired him to work with rural populations in the future.

· Passionate about global health, Jenna Jorgensen ’19 spent four years volunteering at a Children’s Home in Tanzania after finishing her undergraduate degree and while there, met her husband and adopted their son before moving back to the U.S. for medical school. The Thousand Oaks, Calif., native never imagined she’d be juggling motherhood with medical school, but she’s grateful for the “grounding force” her family has provided to her during the challenges of her medical education. Last year, she was able to return to Tanzania for a women's global health elective and is now excited to learn news of her family medicine residency match.

The Match is made possible through the National Resident Matching Program’s computerized mathematical algorithm, which aligns the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency program directors, in order to produce the best possible outcome for filling training positions available at U.S. teaching hospitals.